News Briefs: McBride picked to head up IACI

McBride, a vice chairman of the IACI, is retired from a 30 year career on Wall Street and is currently the principal owner of a real estate investment and management company in Morristown.
Kathleen Fee, a member of the IACI board, will replace McBride as vice chairman.
“John [Walsh] has been instrumental in bringing the IACI to the respected position it holds in the United States, Ireland, and around the world. I look forward to continuing his work and expanding the institute’s role and influence in the Irish cultural community,” McBride said upon accepting his new post.
Walsh is stepping down after 35 years working with the IACI, 18 of which he
served as chairman
“It has been a pleasure serving as chairman of the IACI for the last 18 years. I think the IACI will continue to grow with the election of Gerry McBride as my successor,” Walsh said.

DEATH OF TERRY O’NEILL
Terry O’Neill, for years one of the best-known bar and restaurant owners in New York City, has died aged 70.
O’Neill, of Rye, NY, died peacefully on Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2005 at Greenwich Hospital, Connecticut.
A native of Cork City, O’Neill’s first New York restaurant was the famed Green Derby in Manhattan. He was also the founder and owner of the popular John Barleycorn.
Over the years O’Neill was also involved in the development of numerous bar/restaurants as well as other business ventures in travel, golf, real estate and the airline industry.
He was a founding partner of Waterville Golf Links and the creator of the Father Son International Golf Tournament. He is survived by his wife Barbara and son Terence.
The Church of the Resurrection in Rye was packed to standing room only for O’Neill’s funeral Mass. He was interred at Gate of Heaven Cemetery, Hawthorne, NY. Memorial contributions may be made to Catholic Charities of New York, 1011 First Avenue, NY, NY 10022.

KOREA TRIBUTE FOR BROOKLYN
There are now two possible sites in New York City for the planned memorial to 28 Irish soldiers who died fighting for the U.S. in the Korean War.
Battery Park in Lower Manhattan has already been identified but now Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn is being considered by the committee charged with memorializing the men who were made posthumous U.S. citizens at a 2003 ceremony in Washington, D.C.
Greenwood is the last resting place of many notable Irish including Matilda Tone, wife of Wolfe Tone, Civil War Union general Thomas Sweeney, and the late John Gallagher, author of the book “The Battle of Brooklyn.”

SUSPENDED SENTENCE
An Irish-born carpenter whose car slammed into another vehicle carrying wedding guests last April has been given a five year suspended sentence in Queens Supreme Court.
The collision put a ten-year-old girl into a coma. She has since recovered consciousness.
Gerard Gormley, 37, will also pay a $1,000 fine, surrender his driver’s license for six months and attend a course for drunken drivers. He faced a possible four-year term.
Gormley admitted to drinking four beers on the evening of the crash
“He’s relieved that the child is OK,” Gormley’s attorney, Robert Aiello, told the New York Post.
Gormley had pleaded guilty in October to DWI and leaving the scene of an accident. The injured girl was 10-year-old Ilda Ujkaj, the daughter of Albanian immigrants.

REISS UNDER FIRE
The U.S. special envoy to the peace process, Ambassador Mitchell Reiss, has come under Irish American fire in the aftermath of the collapse of the so-called “Stormontgate” affair.
“Dr. Reiss has spent a lot of time trying to promote the Northern Ireland police. He has vigorously tried to convince Irish-Americans that the bad old days were over and that we should without reservation endorse the PSNI,” Fr. Sean McManus, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Irish National caucus, said in a statement.
“Well, I’m afraid our concerns have been justified. Some of us tried to convince Dr. Reiss that the Mugabe-style, high-media covered, raid on Sinn F